California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner joined volunteers at a phone bank in Torrance on Election Day, dialing for votes just hours before polls closed. There was no indication from the outside of the small rented office that it housed the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s campaign. Inside, about 10 volunteers made calls and sat with paper horns, the kind you use on New Year's Eve, that they tooted every time they got off of a call with some success. In a 25-minute visit, the horns weren't exactly like Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

In politics, actions are everything — even the lack of them. And in the case of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, her lack of events today send a clear signal about her comfort level with the likely outcome. Whitman is doing no events today until her election night event in Southern California, while her opponent, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, will be visiting two call centers in the next few hours. But then again, Poizner is being outpolled two-to-one by Whitman.

A Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research poll published Thursday morning finds former eBay CEO Meg Whitman with a narrower lead over her GOP primary opponent, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, and places former Rep. Tom Campbell well ahead of his rivals for the GOP's Senate nomination. Whitman leads Poizner by a formidable 28-point gap, 47 percent to 19 percent -- but that's a somewhat more competitive margin than the 49-point gap that separated the opponents in a recent Field poll.

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman declined former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's invitation to hold a general election debate before the GOP primary, calling it a "political stunt." Whitman's Republican primary opponent, Steve Poizner, said he would participate in a three-way gubernatorial debate with Brown and Whitman, but Whitman told reporters: "Let's not put the cart before the horse here. Jerry Brown is debating about a debate. I have work to do."

California's two Republican candidates for governor, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, met in their first debate Monday night, with tense exchanges but no sign of a shift in momentum.

Republican Meg Whitman will begin airing half-hour ads across California to boost her campaign for governor, reaching out to voters beyond Republicans who will participate in the June primary. Whitman strategist Mike Murphy told POLITICO the ads will be airing at various times in the coming weeks across cable and broadcast, in media markets across the state, hoping to make Californians more familiar with Whitman’s policy positions.

Despite a barrage of attacks on his ties to Sami Al-Arian and his record on the Middle East, former Rep. Tom Campbell is still the most competitive Republican candidate against Sen. Barbara Boxer, according to a new Daily Kos/Research 2000 survey. And in the governor's race, eBay CEO Meg Whitman as the more formidable of the two Republican candidates, by far.

California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner appears to be going up with his first ad of the primary campaign, a counterattack on "weak" and "liberal" Meg Whitman, and a promise to be tough on "illegal aliens."